Chris Christie

Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon (front row, left), with Monmouth County Republican Committee Chairman Joe Oxley (front, center) and state Sen. Joe Kyrillos (head bowed, over Oxley's left shoulder)

He sits on the budget committee as a member of the minority party calling into that chasm between himself and Democrats running both the executive and legislative branches.

But while the opposition last Tuesday maintained its hegemony on the legislative side, the GOP now has a governor-elect in Chris Christie, from whom Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon (R-Little Silver) trusts there will be an invitation of engagement.

"I'm hoping the Chris Christie administration will work hand in hand with the legislature and I'm hoping folks like me will have a seat at the table policywise," O'Scanlon said. "The cabinet needs to be about real reform, not re-election four years from now. I'm looking forward to a cabinet created that way. I hope it's going to be an open administration.

"As a member of the budget committee I hope to be included and I would like to believe one won't need a cabinet position in order to have input," added O'Scanlon.

Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac

Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac told PolitickerNJ.com he does not want to chair the Middlesex County Democratic Organization.

"No, that's just somebody starting trouble," said the mayor, whose town, Woodbridge, went for GOP candidate Chris Christie over Gov. Jon Corzine even as McCormac's local Democrats won in all but one of the wards where they contended.

"Not interested," said McCormac, who also denied he is interested in leading the state party organization.

Some Democrats quietly fumed and blamed the former State Treasurer for working against Corzine during the campaign, but the mayor all along said he was focused on electing local candidates and preserving a majority on the council.

Association with an unpopular incumbent governor was not in his best local interest.

Christie two days after the election surfaced on the streets of Woodbridge to hobnob with McCormac and local busness owners.

Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini (R-Ocean) with her daughter, Toni, a Matawan councilwoman-elect.

The Chris Christie cabinetmaking process has begun and among insiders talk inevitably turns to Republican candidates who are already out there in the public sphere with specific expertise - people like Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany), Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini (R-Ocean) and Assemblyman John Amodeo (R-Margate), among many others.

"If Chris Christie asked me, I would take it under serious consideration," said Angelini, the executive director of a youth nonprofit whose name has surfaced early as a possibile commissioner of human services in a Christie administration.

"I'm happy where I am," added the assemblywoman, who had several reasons to celebrate last Tuesday night.

Not only did the Monmouth County-based legislator's choice for governor win, but she and her running mate Assemblyman David Rible (R-Wall) won by larger margins than two years ago, and her daughter, Toni, was elected to the Matawan Borough Council.

Toiling in the minority for the past two years with a Democratic governor in charge, Angelini said she never knew a different Trenton terrain, and is thrilled now to be a forward observer to a change in her party's favor on the executive side of government.

South Jersey GOTV central on Election Day last Tuesday.

The North Jersey urban operative, under the radar as always, eyes bloodshot late in the game last Tuesday night, said he saw what Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford) saw among rank and filers in South Jersey, and it rattled him early on Election Day.

"For the first time in all my years doing GOTV, rank and file labor guys weren't telling me who they were voting for," said the operative. "These are guys I'm talking to as they're heading in and out of the polls and ordinarily you'll get a thumbs up sign for the Democrat or some fraternal sign for the Democratic candidate. Not this time. This time - silence."

Sweeney saw it a while ago - rank and file worry translating itself into anti-Corzine sentiment.

Poised to become the next state Senate President, Sweeney, an ironworker by trade and business agent for Ironworker's Local 399, said South Jersey Democrats did everything they could to get the vote out for Gov. Jon Corzine.

"We worked very hard," Sweeney told PolitickerNJ.com. "But it wasn't in the cards, you could feel it on the ground."

AFL-CIO Prez Charles Wowkanech on Election Day, 2007

Another strategy wouldn't have changed the outcome, he acknowledges, but Charles Wowkanech, president of the New Jersey AFL-CIO, admitted today that the 11th hour influx of big rallies inhibited the Central Labor Council's ability to lock in on GOTV in the closing days of the gubernatorial campaign.

"I don't want this to come off as negative or critical of the campaign, which did a great job, but you can't have rallies three times a week," said Wowkanech, whose coordinated labor effort registered wins at the legislative level but watched Gov. Jon Corzine get unseated by Republican challenger Chris Christie.

"Our people were working every weekend, doing labor walks," said the labor leader, reflecting on the last two weeks of the campaign wherein the Corzine camp spread out a constellation of Democratic Party luminaries including President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, former President Bill Clinton, the Kennedy family, etc.

"I'm not second guessing anyone, but trying to run our program and make all these events - two and three times a week - was tough."

Within 24 hours after the election of Chris Christie as Governor, the battle was joined between the Governor-elect and the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA).  This could become the Ali-Frazier of New Jersey issue battles.

MORRISTOWN - The happiest Democrat in Morris County.

That would be Tim Dougherty, who on Tuesday night won the Morristown mayor's race with 64.62% of the vote on a night when every municipality went for home county gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie by large margins with the exception of Dover, Victory Gardens and Morristown.

Doherty took pride in the fact that he won without going negative on his opponent, local businessman Jimmy Gervasio. 

"I told (campaign strategist Barrett) Tommy I'm not putting out one piece of negative literature," said the mayor-elect. "Why? I figured somebdy's gotta start doing it that way. Voters want to hear about what you're going to do."

In the primary, Dougherty built a coalition among African Americans, progressives, Latinos and downtown business people to crush veteran Morristown political animal Mayor Donald Cresitello.

One of the more aggressive critics of Gov.-elect Chris Christie early in the campaign, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) today said he plans to reach out to Christie and establish working relations with him for the sake of New Jersey.

"I wish Chris Christie well," said Pascrell. "It's going to be a tough four years overcoming the last eight years of national inaction."

The former mayor of Paterson and veteran 8th District congressman last year mused on a potential bid for the governship in the event that Corzine did not seek re-election. 

Asked if he intends to run for governor in 2013, Pascrell said, "No, it's too early to talk about that now."

Pascrell said he has not talked to defeated Gov. Jon Corzine since the governor's loss to Christie on Tuesday.

"The governor was unable to overcome some unfavorable perceptions many voters had of him," said the congressman. "Most of the Democrats running for (the legislature) didn't run with the governor, and I think it's clear he was also unable to overcome that. He was not able to articulate what he accomplished. This governor accomplished a lot of things. The state budget is the same as it was four years ago. He was trying to do his part with the caps." 

The Assembly Republican caucus this morning reelected Assembly Mniority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany) to a fourth consecutive term. 

Support was unanimous.

After threatening, Assembly Conference Leader Pete Biondi (R-Hillsborough) ended up not challenging DeCroce, who is rumored to be a short list candidate for the cabinet of Gov.-elect Chris Christie.

Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield) this morning received his caucus's backing to be conference leader and Assemblyman Dave Rible (R-Wall) moved up to become whip.

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton)

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton) today blamed party bosses for deal-making when they should have been focused on re-electing Gov. Jon Corzine.

"Party leaders undermined the governor by having a party leadership fight," said Gusciora. "They reinforced the message that if Corzine won, the reins of power would be handed over to special interests."

Asked on Election Day morning about the intra-party deal cultivated by South Jersey Democratic Party leader George Norcross III and Newark North Ward Democratic Party boss Steve Adubato, Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden) dismissed its larger-scale impact on voter production.

"It's inside baseball and affected very few people beyond Trenton," said Roberts of a North-South deal that would oust Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) in exchange for Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford), and launch Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange) into the lower house leadership chair being vacated by Roberts.